While some people might poke fun, their main intent is to keep you from hurting yourself. Wait a couple of days and check the thread again. Phreezone, Skybytch, billvon, riggerrob, and others are very knowledgeable about this kind of thing, and will probably offer their advice if they haven't already. You would be wise to listen to them, as well as experienced high-performance canopy pilots at your DZ.

Tiffany, At 60 jumps you may think you have "great canopy skills" and you might even find someone at the dropzone that will tell you something similar, but you barely have the skills needed to survive some of the landings thats some of the others on here have done and walked away from with out a scratch. In all my 257 jumps (not any at all), I've jumped in winds that were 35 knots at 50 feet and dead on the ground, done night jumps, landed in WAY too many back yards chasing the raft after raft dives, bumped end cells , carved 90's,180's and 360's. I've downwinded it in 10 plus mph winds (stupid!), Crosswinded it in 15 plus , severly hurt my ankle (only regained feeling in the toes 3 days ago), landed in snow, and dozens of other things that you have never experienced and some you probally have never thought of. I could never do some of the demos that BillVon or Alan on here have done. I can't imagine flying at above a 1.6 wingloading (done for 1 jump) like Alan and a few others here do all the time.

Quite simply, we are all students and always need to learn, the moment you think you are "good enough" or "have enough skill", is the moment you need to start writing your incident report.

I know personally, having about 100 jumps, that my wingloading is a bit steep. (a bit above 1.3) But I've done fairly well, landing most of my landings on my feet, right where I want to land. HOWEVER, I've had a few that scared the be-jesus out of me, enough that the thought of trying to actually swoop yet is on the same level as playing chicken with a train. That and downsizing/going elliptical. Remember when you turned 16 and were driving around town. You thought that you were a *good* driver, right? Were you actually? Hell no, of course not, since you didn't have enough experiene to be. Same thing. Sure, maybe you've caught on quick, I did/do too, don't matter, going too far, too fast with our current skill levels (notice, I said OUR, b/c I'm in the same boat, basically) will kill us. Or leave us very very badly injured with a $11,000 helicopter ride to our credit. I saw this happen to a guy named Travis one day out at Eagle Flight Skydiving. He had about 80 jumps, thought he could do a hook turn. He landed the same time his canopy did, sideways. Well, he's alive, barely. Very scarey shit.

What someone told me once: "Relax man, you have the next 40-50 years of your life to skydive, take it slow and enjoy yourself."

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.-General George Patton-